Video Games and Violence

As we all know the media has the intention to entertain and send out connotations of numerous issues that happen around the world. In yesterday’s lecture Kevin made me realise how the media portrays violence within video games, but there is no real consensus. I started to think about my young cousin who loves to play Xbox and all the shooter games and have the chance to play games that were not suitable for his age, but his parents made the decision. As we all know many parents would think this is unsuitable because of the games R16 and R18 titles due to him only being 11 years old, but this doesn’t mean that he could become a mass murderer. He is 11 and knows the difference between right and wrong and he knows that this is fiction. His father is into the games as much as he is and they play as a team, the video game you have agency, choosing to shoot people automatically which means that they will become father and son mass murderers. His father is supervising and spending quality time with his son. Just because they are playing Halo the media indicates that this will affect the brain and how they will interact with others in society. It is ridiculous that the media implies these accusations not only towards video games but pretty much anything that is popular in society, there is always an issue. Society automatically thinks that the media is always right but we need to be more conscious about anything that has become an issue. Most of these video games that are played the players are aware what they are doing is a game and does not change the reality you have. It is important to look at the entire context of the game and not to assume that the game is violent because it has blood in it or killing enemies. In tutorial Kevin pointed out “Everything Bad Is Good for You" by Steven Johnson, discussed about what happens if video games where established long before books and then books where created after would it receive the same treatment as video games have today? Books are fictional; books have different types of genres. This made me to become very conscious and curious on how the media would have invested themselves in creating a discourse about books if video games where around before books. Would they be violent? Would books create mass murderers?